The present invention relates to a game apparatus wherein an object displayed on a screen performs a prescribed movement.
Game apparatus are known conventionally wherein a player shoots a target character or the like displayed on a screen of a display device using a shooting device such as a gun. For example, in the game apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-75552 specification, a virtual bullet is fired from a muzzle by pulling a trigger provided on a gun-type controller and an impact position on the screen is calculated. When the impact position matches with the target character, namely, when the bullet hits the target, the game performance is carried out such that the character is wounded or destroyed. In a game apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-230081 specification, the impact position is calculated when the trigger of the gun-type controller is pulled. Then a determination is made whether the bullet hits the character or not, and if there is no hit, a determination is made whether a vicinity of the character is shot, so that different game performances are carried out depending upon the impact position.
In the above described conventional game apparatus, the impact position is not calculated until the trigger of the gun-type controller is pulled by the player, and the predetermined game performance is carried out when the bullet hits directly the character or its vicinity. Accordingly, there is a problem that no action is taken when the player moves the aiming position of the gun-type controller to match with the enemy character or the like on the screen, which lacks reality. For example, in a scene of shooting at each other, it is unnatural that the enemy character on which a gun is pointed is not scared, does not escape nor hide behind an obstacle. Further, in a scene of a fight by steering a fighter plane or the like, when an aiming position of a missile or the like is locked, it is unnatural that the enemy character does not avoid this.
The present invention is made in view of the above and it is an object of this invention to provide a game apparatus which enhances reality of a game.
To solve the above described problems, in a game apparatus according to the present invention, when a player operates position specifying unit to specify an arbitrary position on a screen, character movement setting unit makes a character to perform a prescribed movement in the case where a display position of the character included in a game image displayed on the screen approaches the specified arbitrary position. According to the present invention, when the character and its surroundings displayed on the screen are pointed by the player, the character may be made to perform the prescribed movement such as escaping. Accordingly, an avoiding movement or the like of the character aimed by the fighting opponent can be reproduced with reality, thereby permitting enhancing the reality of the game.
Preferably, the above described position specifying unit includes a gun-type controller, and an arbitrary position on the screen specified by the position specifying unit is an aiming position of the gun-type controller. The game performance can be carried out such that, when the muzzle of the gun-type controller is pointed on the character, the character recognizes being aimed at and performs a prescribed movement, which enhances the reality of the game.
When the above described gun type-controller comprises a light emitting section for emitting light toward the aiming position, it is preferable to provide a screen arranged so as to cover the display unit and formed from a translucent material, to photograph an irradiation position of the light on the screen, and to calculate the aiming position of the gun-type controller by aiming position calculating unit, based on the irradiation position photographed by the camera. The aiming position is detected by photographing the irradiation position of the light from the gun-controller so that the aiming position can be specified independent of the operation of a trigger or the like.
It is also preferable to emit the light with infrared wavelengths from the above described light emitting section. Detecting the aiming position using the infrared light eliminates an effect of a visible ray irradiated from the character or the like displayed on the screen, which permits precisely specifying the aiming position of the gun-type controller in a condition where the game image is displayed.
Alternatively, it is preferable that the above described position specifying unit comprises a dedicated controller provided with a movement operating section such as a cross cursor key or a joystick and that the arbitrary position on the screen specified by the position specifying unit is the display position of an indication moving on said screen depending upon an operation of said movement operating section. It is possible to point the character by operating the movement operating section such as the cross cursor key provided on the dedicated controller to move the prescribed indication displayed on the screen. The game performance can be carried out such that the character recognizes being pointed as described above and perform the prescribed movement, which enhances the reality of the game.
It is preferable that the above described character movement setting unit makes the character to perform the prescribed movement when the display position of the character is included in a first area including the arbitrary position specified by the position specifying unit. Checking whether the display position of the character is included or not in first area corresponding to the specified arbitrary position and its surroundings can be carried out simply by comparing coordinates thereof, which permits processing to be simple.
It is also preferable that the above described character movement setting unit makes the character to perform the prescribed movement when the arbitrary position specified by the position specifying unit is included in a second area including the display position of the character. Like the case using the above described first area, checking whether the pointed arbitrary position is included or not in the second area corresponding to the character and its surroundings can be carried out simply by comparing coordinates thereof, which permits processing to be simple.
It is further preferable to predict time which it takes the arbitrary position to arrive at a third area including the display position of the character based on a moving speed and a moving direction of the specified arbitrary position by an arrival time prediction unit and make the character to perform the prescribed movement when the prediction is within a prescribed time. In a fighting game, it is natural that the player decides his own movement watching the movement of a fighting opponent, so that predicting the time which it takes the arbitrary position specified by the player to arrive at near the display position of the character to set the movement which the character is made to perform, which further enhances the reality of the game.
It is preferable that the above described character movement setting unit variably set the prescribed movement to be performed afterwards depending upon the movement of the character before the prescribed movement. It is further preferable that the character movement setting unit variably set the prescribed movement which the character is made to perform based on the result of calculation of a distance between the arbitrary position specified and the display position of the character by the distance calculating unit.
It is also preferable that character movement setting unit variably set the prescribed movement which the character is made to perform based on the result of a calculation of a moving speed of the arbitrary position by a speed calculating unit. In this way, the prescribed movement of the character is not decided uniformly but variably set depending upon a preceding movement of the character, a distance to the specified arbitrary position, or the moving speed of specified arbitrary position, which further enhances the reality of the game.